It's the cultivation of the business that takes time and energy. No matter how great your idea is, it will not flower by itself. You have to nurture it.

And that's the problem. Nurturing takes TIME. Lots and lots of time, attention, care and energy.

My goal is to help you harness digital power to make yourself money with as little effort as possible. Create products, share value with people, make income. But it's not always a linear process, is it?

So how do you make a relatively smooth transition from corporate employee to automated/digitized entrepreneur without going destitute?

You have to start with the middle road: freelancing

The bottom line is this — you need time to set up your business. Most corporate jobs have schedules that don't really allow for the type of time you need to build content, products, relationships, and skills.

Here's what I did. In the transition period between quitting my job at Longhorn Steakhouse in Atlanta, making $2 an hour, to creating my digital empire out of my office in gorgeous Santa Monica, I worked as a contracted online freelancer. I got to create my own schedule, meet a bunch of interesting people, and do something that I loved (or at least liked a lot).

And the biggest perk of all? I could charge a LOT more money.

Most corporate jobs are salaried, so they're going to max you out and overwork you for your pay.

Hourly jobs can be low-paying by their very nature. The more money you make per hour, the less the company will want you to be working. It's a catch-22.

But as a freelancer, none of this applies to you. You set your own schedule and your own rates.

Inevitably, this is where the objections start to crop up:

"I have no idea what I would do. I'm not good at coming up with ideas."

"I don't have any valuable skills. I just have my job-specific skills."

"My market is already saturated. There are better people doing what I do."

"Nobody will pay for what I know when they can just teach themselves."

(These are exact responses copy and pasted from fans and readers who follow my work.)

Start thinking about where you could mine your talent for freelance skill:

What do people consistently ask you for help with or advice in?

Do you have any unique skills, talents, hobbies, or abilities?

What areas of life have you excelled to an "advanced" or even "intermediate" level?

What skills ideas interest you enough to learn, and then teach to others?

Could you work independently doing what you do now at your current job?

Do you have any friends with talents that compliment yours? Maybe you could team up.

The author, Daniel DiPiazza. Daniel DiPiazza

My story:

Best to learn by example, I always think. Here's how I did it.

When I first started freelancing, I was working at Longhorn Steakhouse (I'm basically a steak aficionado now). I was also working for Kaplan Test Prep.

My steak skills weren't worth much. But my Kaplan skills were.

I realized that people were paying $100+ per hour for me to tutor their student one-on-one.

You won't believe how much I was making … $18/hour!

And the worst part was …

I THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD WAGE!

Our perceptions are skewed because minimum wage is $7.25. So we think that anything significantly higher than that is good money. The reality is, $7.25 isn't even livable. You probably need a minimum of $20 per hour to make it out here.

But when I really sat down to think about it … I was INFURIATED.

Here I was, doing all the teaching, grading, talking, communicating with parents, and driving from school to school while Kaplan just sat back remotely and took 82% of my money.

Bulls---.

Since I was the one with the skill, I needed to be the one making the money. I knew I could make this work on my own and cut out the middle man.

So I bided my time. I looked around, I made some calls.

I found a partner who was also interested in getting a freelance education business going. He was the consulting side, I was the teaching side. Together we knocked down doors, created classes and started making money. A lot more of it.

First, I quit Kaplan. I didn't want any conflicts of interest. Then, as soon as the restaurant started to get in the way of my new endeavor, I quit that as well.

When I quit both jobs, I wasn't making quite as much with the new business … but the projections were giving me a solid indication that things would pick up quickly. So I just took the leap.

Worst case scenario, you can always go back. Best case scenario, you'll never have to.

Daniel DiPiazza is the Founder of Rich20Something, where he writes about starting a business you care about, living a happier life, and occasionally, bacon. If you liked this article, be sure to join the Tribe by signing up for his free newsletter.